newsbrief

Lahore (Staff Reporter): Shah Faisal Afridi, President Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) has urged the government to introduce new SME Policy to enable the business community of Pakistan to redesign the entrepreneurship in line with the world market. In a press statement issued here today he said, the brands emerge from the domestic markets, therefore domestic markets must be redesigned in a way that they become landmark for local brands in international markets, which will help meet the challenges to be faced in the export promotion moves. He said that a fresh and progressive SME Policy is need of the hour to equip the SME sector with new Technology, innovation and e-services for developing brands based trade and industry in the domestic market. He pointed out that the first ever SME Policy was announced by the government in 2007, but its implementation has not been made successfully.

The present government being a business oriented government should take lead to develop a fresh SME Policy by taking the entire stakeholders of SME sector on board through SMEDA. He suggested to design the new SME policy focused on export development in the changing trends of the international marketing of SMEs. He maintained that, this is the time that we should maintain an open international stance to integrate our economy into the global economy, and for this, we must develop markets at home more appropriately termed as Domestic markets or Domestic Commerce. He pointed that, what we import and what we export is a product of these domestic markets; efficient and well developed domestic markets fuel the economy as well as international trade, added Afridi.

Unisame lauds increasing credit for

private sector

ISLAMABAD (NNI): The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has appreciated the guidelines given by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to commercial banks to increase credit for the private sector, particularly the SMEs , microfinance and the housing sector. President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said on Sunday the advice and the action plan of the minister was much appreciated as the SME sector was the majority sector and played an important role in the growth of the economy. “Dar has rightly advised the heads of commercial banks in the presence of the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ashraf Mahmood Wathra and his highly proficient team to increase finance from the micro to medium sized sector,” he added. “The minister has also emphasized financing the housing sector and promoting mortgage financing by sharpening the foreclosure laws. Indeed the housing sector includes 35 different industries and deserves priority by virtue of it encompassing many units,” he concluded.

ISLAMABAD (INP): The PEW on Sunday demanded serious steps to combat the threat of climate change which is poised to damage economy and hurt millions of people. “Climate change has become a great threat, but concerned authorities seem not keen about it,” said PEW President Dr Murtaza Mughal. “Climate change is to inflict more harm than any other problem but it is not a priority for the government which is busy in spending hefty amounts on symbolic projects,” he regretted. Mughal said that floods inflicting losses of trillions of rupees and leaving many homeless, melting glaciers, reducing water table, untimely rains and drought in some parts of the country were linked to climate change. He said Karachi that contributed almost 65 percent in taxes will be worst hit by climate change in the absence of a proper strategy. “A severe heat wave that killed 1,200 people in Karachi was a result of climate change, and now city is facing threat from the intruding sea which can displace millions of people,” he added.

He said that mangrove forests on Pakistan’s coastal areas, the first line of defence against soil erosion and tsunami, had shrunk from four hundred thousand hectares to seventy thousand hectares while hundreds of acres of forests had already been wiped out.

Decision to make coal-based power plants along CPEC lauded

ISLAMABAD (NNI): Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders on Sunday backed the decision of the government to construct coal-based power plants along CPEC. “The government should try to use maximum quantity of Thar coal for power generation to cut oil import bill, as gas supply form Iran or Turkmenistan is not possible anytime soon while enhancing LNG imports will take time,” it said. “Reserves of native natural gas are depleting, exploration process is highly satisfactory; therefore coal has become the fuel of choice,” said Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt. He said that Pakistan’s energy mix was far from balanced; the power sector is heavily dependent on imported fuel which is among the reasons behind circular debt and high electricity tariff. Butt said the government should adopt advanced coal conversion technology, and try to use Thar coal which will help cut fuel import bill, create thousands of jobs and achieve energy security.